John Held Jr.

Myrtle Held

(1889 - 1958, USA)

John Held Jr. sold his first cartoon in 1904 to Life magazine. In 1905, he dropped out of school to work as a sports cartoonist for the Salt Lake City Tribune. In 1910, he was employed by Collier's agency and moved to New York, where he drew his first cartoons under the pseudonym Myrtle Held. During the 1920s, he became renowned for the flat-chested, angular "flapper" girls he drew for the New Yorker. From these cartoons 'Merely Margy' developed, and appeared as a comics feature in 1930, accompanied by 'Joe Prep'. In 1935, 'Merely Margy' folded and was replaced by 'Rah! Rah! Rosalie', but this 1920s based comic did not catch on in this time of Depression. Held went back to illustrating, and died in 1958.